Tallest Players in NBA – Past & Present
Basketball is a sport that offers a natural advantage to particularly tall people. With the basket standing 8’ from the ground, anyone who can make up the space from shoulder to hoop can get close and essentially take the element of unpredictability when shooting out of the equation. Without the ball, they also make a rather potent screen.
Still, there are also limitations that come with being particularly tall. Those who’re particularly tall are known to suffer injuries more frequently, and there’ll always be that increased window for pocket-picking while dribbling from hand to floor. Even so, as you’d expect, many very tall athletes have made their mark on the NBA.
Here, we’re looking at the tallest basketball players in NBA history. First, however, we’ll begin with a look at how the tallest NBA players of the current game are making an impact.
The Tallest Players Currently Playing in the NBA
While not quite at the heights of the tallest basketball players in NBA history, the modern game is filled with extremely tall athletes. All within the 7’ bracket, these are the seven tallest NBA players right now.
The tallest players right now, ranked:
- Victor Wembanyama (7’4”)
- Zach Edey (7’4”)
- Bol Bol (7’3”)
- Kristaps Prozinģis (7’2”)
- Brook Lopez (7’1”)
- Walker Kessler (7’1”)
Victor Wembanyama (7’4’’)
One of the newer entrants to the NBA, Victor Wembanyama getting picked at first overall in 2023 marked another entrant to stand 7’4’’ in the league. The Frenchman is certainly absurdly tall, but his father stands 6’6’’ and his mother 6’3’’, and both were professional athletes in their day.
Wembanyama was the obvious choice with the No. 1 slot for the San Antonio Spurs. The young centre has made an immediate impact, winning the 2024 NBA Rookie of the Year and standing as the NBA blocks leader in both of his two NBA seasons to date, putting up 3.6 blocks in 2023/24 and 3.8 in 2024/25.
Clearly, he’s leveraging his position as one of the tallest basketball players in the NBA today to great effect.
Zach Edey (7’4’’)
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Zach Edey brought the same height to the 2024 NBA Draft as Wembanyama did the year before, standing 7’4’’. So, once again, a team would be able to add a player who would rank among the tallest NBA players. Prior to his drafting, Edey won the Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year twice in a row.
In his first season of NBA action, Edey played 66 games for the Memphis Grizzlies, starting 55 of them. The Grizzlies were keen to ease their ninth overall pick into the professional game. He returned them a stellar line of 8.3 total rebounds, a .580 field goal percentage from 6.6 attempts, and 9.2 points per game.
Bol Bol (7’3’’)
Coming in just short of the top spots for being named the tallest basketball player in the NBA right now, the 7’3’’ Bol Bol has been a useful additional option at power forward for many teams. He was drafted in the second round of 2019 by the Miami Heat, but would make his debut for the Denver Nuggets in the 2019/20 season.
Over three seasons, Bol played 53 games, starting two, for the Nuggets. He’d then go to the Orlando Magic, where he’d get a much more prominent role. The man from Sudan averaged 21.5 minutes and returned a .546 field goal percentage, 4.8 defensive rebounds, and 9.1 points.
Kristaps Porziņģis (7’2’’)
Standing among the current tallest NBA players at 7’2’’, Kristaps Porziņģis entered the league with high expectations, having been snapped up fourth overall. For a time, he was seen as the centrepiece of the New York Knicks’ rebuild, until it continued to hit roadblocks. In the middle of the 2018/19 season, the Latvian was traded.
After a couple of years with the Dallas Mavericks, we went to the Washington Wizards, and eventually to the Boston Celtics. The trade to the Celtics would prove to be a good one for the centre and the team. In 2024, he won the NBA Championship to add to his All-Star call-up in 2017/18.
However, while Porziņģis can certainly make a huge impact on the court – as shown by his 19.5 points and 7.8 total rebounds per game average – injuries have blighted his career. The 72 starts of his rookie season and 65 starts in 2016/17 and 2022/23 stand as his most active seasons. Overall, he averages 55 starts across each of his ten seasons in the NBA. Now, he’ll try to help the Atlanta Hawks make good on their Eastern Conference odds.
Brook Lopez (7’1’’)
Born in Los Angeles, California, and a major part of the Milwaukee Bucks’ title-winning campaign in 2020/21, Brook Lopez has shifted from being a high point scorer to a nominee for defensive honours. Prior to landing in Milwaukee in 2018/19, Lopez would regularly put up per game point averages in excess of 18.5.
As a Buck and having just entered his 30s, the 7’1’’ centre was switched to a more defensive-minded player. Since then, he’s been nominated for the All-Defensive First Team and All-Defensive Second Team and has helped the Bucks to the Championship and NBA Cup. In 2025/26, he and the Bucks will need to dig deep to defy their Central Division odds.
Walker Kessler (7’1’’)
Walker Kessler entered the league as the 22nd overall selection in the 2022 NBA Draft after winning the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award. He was picked up by the Memphis Grizzlies, but soon found himself on the roster of the Utah Jazz after a stack of players and picks swapped hands.
Kessler would finish third in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2022/23 with the Jazz, and has since developed into a regular starter. Last season, in 58 starts, Kessler put up a .663 field goal percentage, 12.2 total rebounds – with the 4.6 offensive rebounds leading the NBA – 2.4 blocks, and 11.1 points per game. He’s certainly on the rise, but the Utah Jazz betting for them to make the playoffs don’t suggest he’ll be competing in the postseason soon.
The Tallest NBA Players Throughout the History of the League
Now, we’re onto the tallest NBA players in history. Ranging from 7’5’’ to 7’7’’, even the outright tallest NBA players who’re still active in the league would need to tilt their head back to try to get a read on these athletes.
The tallest players of all time, ranked:
- Gheorghe Mureșan (7’7”)
- Manute Bol (7’7’’)
- Yao Ming (7’6’’)
- Shawn Bradley (7’6’’)
- Chuck Nevitt (7’5’’)
- Pavel Podkolzin (7’5’’)
- Sim Bhullar (7’5’’)
- Tacko Fall (7’5’’)
Gheorghe Mureșan (7’7’’)
Gheorghe Mureșan stands with only one other as the tallest basketball player in NBA history. Reaching 7’7’’, the Romanian was born with a pituitary gland disorder, gigantism, but he leveraged that into a decent NBA career. His highlights include winning the NBA Most Improved Player in 1996, having entered the league in 1993, and standing as the field goal percentage leader in 1996 and 1997 with averages of .584 and then .604, respectively.
With the then-Washington Bullets, Mureșan became a solid NBA centre, helping with his 10.6 points and 6.8 total rebounds predominantly as a starter from 1994 to 1997. Then, he suffered a season-long injury before coming back to play much of a cameo role for the New Jersey Nets from 1999 to 2000.
Manute Bol (7’7’’)
Also standing a massive 7’7’’, Manute Bol shares the crown for the tallest basketball player in NBA history. The centre was drafted right at the end of the second round in 1985, but went on to be a record-maker. Over his 12-year career, Bol’s four NBA teams were always keen to make use of his defensive attributes.
To this day, he’s considered to be among the best shot-blockers the NBA has ever seen, and still, he’s the only player to have ever retired with their blocked shots count being higher than their points scored tally. In 1986 and 1989, he led the league in blocked shots, and his 2,086 career blocks remain 16th of all time.
Yao Ming (7’6’’)
Yao Ming’s influence on the NBA, the sport of basketball, and the perception of China around the world was huge. Selected first overall in 2002 by the Houston Rockets from the Shanghai Sharks, the 7’6’’ Ming burst onto the scene with 72 starts and 82 games in 2002/03, putting up 13.5 points and 8.2 total rebounds to get his first All-Star nod.
By the end of his career, the towering centre from Shanghai had been to eight All-Star Games, saw his No. 11 jersey retired by the Rockets, and powered China to a FIBA Asia Cup win four times. Very much a legend of the game beyond also being one of the tallest NBA players in history, Ming’s relatively short career (nine seasons, one out injured) yielded an average of 19.0 points, 1.9 blocks, 9.2 total rebounds, a .833 free throw percentage, and a .524 field goal percentage.
Shawn Bradley (7’6’’)
Shawn Bradley just misses out on sharing the crown as the tallest NBA player of all time at 7’6’’. Even so, he enjoyed a long and fruitful career in the league. His best outing came in 1997 when, between the New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks, he posted a league-leading blocks tally of 3.4 per game through 73 games.
For most of his career, Bradley would be rotated in and out of the starting line-up. By the end of his career, which spanned 1993 to 2005, he averaged 6.3 total rebounds, 2.5 blocks, and 8.1 points per game. Playing alongside fellow Maverick Dirk Nowitzki (7’0’’), Bradley also enjoyed success on the court in a Germany national team jersey.
Chuck Nevitt (7’5’’)
While he played across nine different seasons in the NBA, Chuck Nevitt never earned a start for any of his five teams. He’d end his career having played 155 games to put up 1.6 points, but at 7’5’’, the centre still holds a place among the tallest NBA players in history.
Pavel Podkolzin (7’5’’)
Pavel Podkolzin makes it onto the list of the tallest basketball players in NBA history, but only just. Taken towards the end of the first round in 2004, the hefty Russian would only feature in six games across two seasons for the Dallas Mavericks, eventually being waived before continuing his career in his home country.
Sim Bhullar (7’5’’)
Sim Bhullar came into the 2014 draft as a two-time WAS Tournament MVP. However, he went undrafted. The Sacramento Kings would pick up the 7’5’’ centre in 2015, but he’d only feature in three games to total his career in the NBA. Even so, he remains among the tallest NBA players ever.
Tacko Fall (7’5’’)
Much like his 7’5’’ peers, while Tacko Fall holds his place as one of the tallest basketball players in NBA history, he didn’t enjoy much of a splash in the league itself. Fall went undrafted in 2019, amassed 26 games for the Boston Celtics over two seasons, and in 2021/22, he made his last appearances in the league over 11 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers.